WakeMod: A 6.9uW Wake-Up Radio Module with -72.6dBm Sensitivity for On-Demand IoT

TL;DR

WakeMod is an ultra-low power wake-up radio module designed for IoT devices, achieving high sensitivity and long-range wake-up capabilities while enabling multi-year battery life in practical applications.

Contribution

The paper introduces WakeMod, a low-power, easy-to-integrate wake-up radio module with high sensitivity and long-range detection for IoT, improving upon existing solutions in power efficiency and responsiveness.

Findings

Achieves 6.9μW idle power consumption.

Supports wake-up from 130m distance with -72.6dBm sensitivity.

Enables 8-year battery life in a real-world IoT application.

Abstract

Large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as asset tracking and remote sensing, demand multi-year battery lifetimes to minimize maintenance and operational costs. Traditional wireless protocols often employ duty cycling, introducing a tradeoff between latency and idle consumption - both unsuitable for event-driven and ultra-low power systems. A promising approach to address these issues is the integration of always-on wake-up radios (WuRs). They provide asynchronous, ultra-low power communication to overcome these constraints. This paper presents WakeMod, an open-source wake-up transceiver module for the 868MHz ISM band. Designed for easy integration and ultra-low power consumption, it leverages the -75dBm sensitive FH101RF WuR. WakeMod achieves a low idle power consumption of 6.9uW while maintaining responsiveness with a sensitivity of -72.6dBm. Reception of a wake-up call is possible from up to 130m of distance with a -2.1dBi antenna, consuming 17.7uJ with a latency below 54.3ms. WakeMod's capabilities have further been demonstrated in an e-ink price tag application, achieving 7.17uW idle consumption and enabling an estimated 8-year battery life with daily updates on a standard CR2032 coin cell. WakeMod offers a practical solution for energy-constrained, long-term IoT deployments, requiring low-latency, and on-demand communication.